The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present teachings and may not constitute prior art.
Electrical connectors are used to electrically interconnect bundles of wires together. The connector can include complementary mating members. Each mating member includes wires that are to be electrically connected together. Each of the wires in one of the mating members can be coupled to a male terminal while each of the wires in the other one of the mating members can be coupled to a female terminal. When the two mating members are coupled together, the male and female terminals engage with one another to electrically interconnect the wires.
In blind electrical connectors, the mating of the terminals on the ends of the wires when coupling the two mating members together is visibly hidden from view. In other words, a person coupling the two mating members together cannot visually see the interconnection of the terminals with one another. Thus, in blind connectors, the proper and complete coupling of the mating members and of the terminals can be difficult to ascertain. Accordingly, it would be advantageous if the proper and complete mating of the mating members and of the terminals could be easily ascertained in a blind electrical connector.
Some electrical connectors may involve a large number of electrical wires that are to be interconnected, such as in a bus electrical center on a vehicle or stationary application. These large connectors typically include a large number of terminals and may require a significant amount of force to couple the mating members together and interconnect the electrical terminals. The required force can be greater than what can be reasonably applied manually. Typically, a mechanical assist is used to couple the mating members together due to the high insertion and extraction forces. The mechanical assist is typically provided by fasteners, such as bolts, which bring the mating members together and interconnect the terminals. The bolts are driven by a special tool, such as a torque gun, capable of applying a sufficient torque to the bolts so that the force imparted to the mating members is large enough to couple the mating members together and interconnect the terminals. The use of a torque gun, however, can limit the assembly location to locations where power and/or resources required by the torque gun are available. Limiting the assembly location can increase the manufacturing cost of assembling an item that uses these electrical connectors and can reduce manufacturing flexibility. Moreover, supplying the required resources in a desired assembly location increases the cost of that assembly location and still limits the assembly to that particular location.
Thus, it would be advantageous to have an electrical connector that needs a lower input force to be coupled together. Furthermore, it would be advantageous if the lower input force could be low enough to enable manual assembly of the electrical connectors. The manual assembly can advantageously facilitate the assembly of the electrical connectors at locations that are conducive to the manufacturing process and do not rely upon the need of special resources at the assembly location.